Skip to main content

Review of Flash Festival: Allure Theatre Company - The Elephant In The Room at the Looking Glass Theatre

The poor old elephant in the room, that little object sitting upon a "small" box had to endure such activity around him. Did he tumble where all chaos surround him, did he heck!

Allure Theatre's production from the wonderful trio of Hannah Mitchell, Julia-Louise Nolan and Jack Smith particular elephant is obsessions, be they of the stalking variety, pop fandom or OCD. Or OCD, pop fandom and stalking to put them in alphabetical order. For the best part they told the trials of these obsessions in a comedic lighthearted way, with more than an element of clowning. So we had obsessive kissing departures from Hannah and Julia-Louise, we had stalking of his cake prey from Jack (the cake is a lie) and we had a loving relationship between Hannah and Jack, well Hannah anyway.

Our set consisted of a large number of boxes, small, medium and large which were used in numerous ways throughout the busy, very quick scene changing show and also offered us the hysterical moment of Jack trying to fit into a small size.

Another magic moment was the super gurning slow motion fight as two Harry Styles obsessives battled it out, just brilliant. This scene returned later, with Jack once again donning the Styles mask, but this time with a gut punching moment. With so much having been lighthearted before and generally jovial, the switch to #cutforharry was a body blow of a scene, with the spirals of blood released via a ribbon from the wrists of Hannah and Julia-Louise. An incredibly powerful, and oh so brilliant moment.

There is also more tough stuff before we see the end as Jack confronts his stalker in another powerful scene. This is the light and shade that was mentioned in another review and much could be learnt from this particular group.

Also of high praise for this group is the obvious research, preparation and rehearsal. It can be seen throughout on the stage in front of us. The fights, the choreography, the shear punch of the movement scenes have been rehearsed to the extreme to make them clean and perfect. Time and effort pays off and will reward all three of these performers down the line I am sure. Tech consisted mostly of lighting and this was perfect as well, so huge credit on this and indeed whoever was working on it behind the scenes. My aloe vera has never glowed in the dark, so it must indeed be magic.

So a show of tremendous things, short snappy scenes with humour and sadness and some beautiful moments. One of the best so far for me this week.


The Flash Festival 2015 runs between 18th-23rd May, 2015 at four venues across the town. Details can be found at http://ftfevents.wix.com/flashtheatre2015, while tickets can be booked via the Royal & Derngate. Details at: http://www.royalandderngate.co.uk/whatson/2015-2016/Other/FlashFestival15

Popular posts from this blog

Review of Lord Of The Dance at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

The stage show Lord of the Dance possibly needs little introduction to most people, as it has become a legend and now, in this touring version, subtitled rather immodestly, 25 Years of Standing Ovations, it reaches a landmark anniversary. Those that do not know of the show would probably well know its spiritual fathers Michael Flatley, and even more likely Riverdance , from which Lord of the Dance sprung with a proper spring in its step. During the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, Riverdance hit the world by storm as Michael Flatley and his troop of dancers possibly presented the most famous part of Eurovision ever, certainly of the non-singing variety at least. Here, this touring show brings that same style Flatley created from traditional Irish dancing across the country once again and it is truly something special to see. The concept of the show is simply a battle between good and evil told through dance, and some captivating and stunning songs performed by Celyn Cartw...

Review of Rambert Dance in Peaky Blinders - The Redemption of Thomas Shelby at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

The Rambert Dance Company is the oldest such company in Britain having first performed in 1926. However, despite this, this was my first encounter with the group in my ten years of theatre-going. Coupled with this, it was also my first encounter with Peaky Blinders , having never seen the show, and only knowing a few vague things about it. My companion for the evening however was very familiar with the show, allowing some background behind the show. It turns out though,  Rambert Dance in Peaky Blinders - The Redemption of Thomas Shelby needs a little more than a good bit of knowledge of the show, as despite this production having incredible style, there struggles to be a cohesive structure to the show and the storytelling. Much more than other dance shows as well. The first act does a whistle-stop tour of the first five seasons and while it is a feast on the eye, and on the ear, it gets extremely confusing at times. The second act is freestyle and drifts away from the stories tol...

Camden Fringe Review: FEET by Emma And Lawrence Wrote A Play at Etcetera Theatre, London

While some issue plays tend to miss the point of providing fun and entertainment as well as making their point on a relevant issue, FEET is certainly not one of them. Written, produced, directed and performed by the two-person team of Emma And Lawrence Wrote A Play, this is clearly a labour of love of the two, full names Emma Brown and Lawrence Smith, it is fun and engaging throughout. It's "issue" is loosely about selling your body for money or art and how far you might be willing to push it. Lucy Winwood (Emma Brown) is your typical young actress, struggling hard to get those money making roles, or roles in general, and in need of money she stumbles upon the world of feet fetishism (as you, of course, would) and slowly from just images of her feet sold online, it becomes feet in jelly and then finally personal meetings with clients for full on feet interaction. The path that FEET takes is that is this denigration of your body in selling your feet actually worse than...